While boys have their Pokémon, Digimon and Yu Gi Oh!, there are few trading card games designed just for girls. In a bid to fill that gap in the marketplace, 4Kids Ent. has teamed with Upper Deck Ent. to create and distribute a new card game based on 4Kids’ popular animated series, Winx Club. The game will be available exclusively at Toys “R” Us stores nationwide on May 15, and will launch simultaneously throughout Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
The Winx Club Magical Fairy Game expands the world of fashion-savvy teenagers Bloom, Stella, Musa, Flora and Tecna, who use their special powers to transform into magical fairies and save the universe. Utilizing glitter Magix cards and scented Power cards, players work together with friends to defeat the Witches in a secret midnight battle. The two-player starter set includes two 30-card decks, magical fairy rings, a play-mat, a scoring wheel with usable hair bands and a glitter die all encased in a Winx Club tin.
“Girls play differently than boys, and it is in understanding these play patterns and appeal that led us to work with Upper Deck and create a trading card game that is more about friendship, fun, fashion and magic,” says Alfred R. Kahn, chairman and CEO of 4Kids Ent.
Promotional efforts will include a contest that invites kids to design their own Winx Club trading cards for the chance to have their unique card featured in a future game release. The winner also will receive a Toys “R” Us gift card valued at $1,000, while other lucky winners will receive more than 100 prizes including Winx Club toys and games.
The Magical Fairy Game will also be heavily promoted in the premiere issue of the Winx Club Comic Magazine, a 64-page monthly book that will include more than 40 pages of graphic novel content and roughly 10 pages of entertainment-related stories dealing with fashion, technology, music, friendship and fun.
In addition to Upper Deck, 4kids’ licensing partners include Mattel, which holds the master toy license for Winx Club, and Scholastic, which publishes books based on the property.
The Winx Club series airs Saturday mornings on 4Kids TV, a four-hour block of children’s programming on FOX. For additional information on the show, go to www.WinxClub.TV.
